The way the NCAA Tournament has played out, the two remaining No. 1 seeds, UConn and Notre Dame, will be playing each other in the national semifinals while the other side of the bracket will feature No. 2 seed California against No. 5-seeded Louisville.

Huskies coach Geno Auriemma and Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw were asked during a Final Four teleconference Wednesday whether or not they thought the NCAA should re-seed the teams once they reach the Final Four so the two remaining No. 1 seeds wouldn't have to play each other. Such a system potentially creates the most competitive matchup for the championship game.

"I do think that," McGraw said. "I was hoping that it would be a championship meeting as opposed to the semifinal. We've played them three years in a row now, and it would be nice to play somebody else."

While Auriemma said he certainly would prefer to play an unfamiliar opponent rather than a Notre Dame team that the Huskies have faced 11 times in the last three seasons, ultimately he thinks that robs underdogs of a better opportunity that they have earned themselves.

"(Re-seeding) would take away from the Cinderella nature. Cal's never been to the Final Four. Louisville's, this is their second opportunity and both Jeff and Lindsay have done a great job at their schools, and one of them is going to be playing in the national championship. And that's something that I'm sure very, very few people predicted that both of those schools would be in that position that they're in right now. So that's just part of the NCAA tournament's beauty."

Sarcastic shout-out: With three of the four teams in the women's Final Four and two of the four in the men's Final Four all from the Big East Conference, there is a lot of pride in just how good the conference is in terms of its basketball play. There is also regret the conference is breaking up.

"We've got five of the eight Big East teams, five of the eight national championship contenders are Big East schools," Auriemma said. "So I guess the shoutout should go out to all the presidents for having the foresight to tear apart the greatest basketball conference that ever existed. "But as basketball coaches, I'm sure Rick (Petino) and Jim Boeheim and Muffet and Jeff (Walz) and I feel we wouldn't want to be anywhere else. And we wish it didn't happen but we have no control over it. But I guess it's a great swan song. If it's going to end, this is a great way for it to end."

McGraw said that having UConn and Notre Dame alone in the Final Four would make the Big East the best women's conference. Adding Louisville to the mix shows the depth of quality.

"It's a little sad to think that next year we'll be gone, the year after Louisville will be gone," McGraw said. "It's a shame it has to end, but what a way to go out. And we're very, very happy and take a lot of pride in that."

Dolson resting: The Huskies feel fortunate that they played their Elite Eight game on Monday rather than Tuesday, giving them an extra day of rest before heading to the Final Four. The team took Tuesday off, certainly benefiting Stefanie Dolson, who is playing with a stress fracture in her right ankle and plantar fasciitis in her left foot.

"She's in great hands," Auriemma said. (Athletic trainer) Rosemary Ragle and our medical staff are spending every waking moment that we can with her, and we're going to get together this afternoon so I'll know a little bit more this afternoon. But obviously she's not going to be 100 percent come Sunday night.

"But I thought she was magnificent over the weekend, 21 rebounds on one leg against those two teams (Maryland and Kentucky) is pretty amazing. So I'm hoping, keeping my fingers crossed, that we're going to be able to get her best effort. But I'm not sure about that."

Dolson is averaging 8.3 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 22.8 minutes per game during the tournament.

She didn't play the final 13 minutes on Monday. Auriemma said each time he put her on the bench she was looking down at him wondering why she was sitting, and he loves that new toughness about her.

"I think she has grown a lot," Bria Hartley said. "She is just able to handle that stuff and she has a better mentality about it. She knows you just kind of have to fight through, especially when we have only this game and maybe next weekend to play. You can see a toughness about her and her confidence as a person has improved since her freshman year."

More than defending Griner: Louisville coach Jeff Walz said Sunday's win over Baylor was less about shutting down Brittney Griner and more about the 16 3-pointers that the Cardinals made.

"I've had great emails and great text messages and phone calls telling us what a great job defensively we did against Baylor, and I kindly remind everybody that I talk to that we held them to 81 points," Walz said. "They average 81 points, so we did average. They scored 81, and that's exactly what they were scoring on average for the entire season. The difference is they normally only give up 51, and we found a way to score 82. So our ability to score the basketball right now, to me, is a bigger influence on the way we're playing than us being able to defend people. We score 86 points (Tuesday) night against a very good defensive Tennessee team."

Louisville has averaged 72.3 points overall this season. The Cardinal scored 58 against UConn and in two games against Notre Dame scored 64 and 59.

Super 'Dog: Louisville knocked off the No. 4, No. 2 and No. 1 seeds in its region to advance to the Final Four so it is understandable the Cardinals have a lot of confidence they can return to the national championship game for the first time since losing to UConn in the 2009 title game.

"I think we're at a point right now where we do believe if we show up and compete and follow game plan and believe in each other, we can beat anybody," Walz said. "But, at the same time, we also know if we don't show up and we're not all on the same page, we're able to be beaten by anybody. We're just not talented enough to just go out there, roll the ball out and say, 'Hey, let's play.' I think it is fair to say we're the party crashers."

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